Muttropolitan Management - Canine Behaviour with Alexis Aitchison

15/04/2024

Staffie Smiles Rescue Dobby 💙
Dobby has hyperactivity/hyperarousal, persistent restlessness, can't sit still which leads to seeking destructiveness and his stress all coming through his mouth as soon as there is added pressure or unfamiliarity to his environment.
From Dobbys behaviour, it could be he that he comes from non professional working lines with unscrupulious training methods used. And for dogs like this it leaves them with enhanced alertness to their environment, always having to be more vigilant combined with high activity levels when out in the field and then isolated when back to the kennel. Add that in with his short attention span and impulsiveness he is unable to concentrate on one task before he's distracted by something else. We see this when we add any new or even known person to our walks in the field, or anything new to his environment - he just cant cope.

When dogs like Dobby are restrained, punished or forced to do anything, they become more aroused and unmanageable and their hyperactivity becomes worse. They are really responsive to rewards but they need to be rapid and continuous to keep the attention at first, no long delays. We have been engaging Dobby through scent and rewards, building the time between asking for a "sit" and rewarding, not for obedience but to work on his self-control and hyper-state one second at a time. Using his nose and building on the seconds between his rewards when asking him for that waiting time when sitting and walking with us, has worked on getting him to make his own choices of "shake offs" and not raggy leads/clothing etc. To be able to come back down from threshold himself.

It takes a little learning that its "tug toy only and not human" when we get started 😁 - but now we're using the tools and skills he already has and loves and wants to use to our advantage. He can use the tug when he is stressed, it can give him a release of that physical energy, and it will give him a focus.

Teaching him the cues "drop" and "take" and we will move on to "leave" next. We
can then use these in daily life. But all a bigger goal of working on his distractibility, impulsiveness, self-control, focus, engagement and neuro in the brain! 💙🥰

Check out MuttropolitanMngmnt’s video.

08/04/2024

07/04/2024

Dobby and Storm doing some lead bonding and distance work again today. Both done super well! Starting a Staffie Smiles Rescue friendship chain. They gonna recruit Hope soon 💙🥰

07/04/2024

This beautiful and cheeky little lady Staffie Smiles Rescue Jazz was a little superstar on Friday despite all the rain that wouldn’t let up for all the doggos! She got the lighter of the rain thankfully so we were able to do a little more than the others. We worked on some different stuff while out and we done some T-Touch and massage which she loved, she kept putting her wee head in my hand to relax into. We also tuned into the clicker so she knew “clicker gives me treat 🍪 “ and then we progressed the clicker training further, which she picked up super fast! So no matter where she was or what she was doing that when she heard the “click” she was to head over to me and park her gorgeous little self in front of me so she could give me the “look at me 👀 “ and get her treat. We then used this while adding in some triggers and stimuli up in the court yard near the other dogs and peeps! She was brilliant! Lots of calming work and keeping everything relaxed! I love this little cheeky adorable gargoyle 🥰

04/04/2024

Can't beat a Staffie Smiles Rescue doggo day! Storm and Dobby leading the way showing how its done on the dog intros and walking together! Jazz choosing the music on the cassette tape to set the mood for the day! King putting us into a trance to make sure all the treats go his way, Olivia making sure we got the right brand of cream for the summer strawberries for when the weather heats up! And Storm and Hope practising their best camera angles incase any model comps or photshoots come up that we might need to enter them into! 💙🥰🐾

23/03/2024

🥰🥰🥰 Storm 🥰🥰🥰
Most should remember this adorable and beautiful little lady! Haven’t done an update on her in a little while.

Storm was seized by police back in 2021 and spent around a year in kennels with no human contact within the inside of her kennel and no walks until I had been asked to assess her in 2022. She was assessed prior to this by another behaviourist and said to be kennel guarding and didn’t get a favourable report even though they had not entered her kennel nor had they gave any true assessment. However, staff at the kennels had been great with her, taking the time to develop a bond from outside the kennel, giving her treats and getting a high-five and some lovely sits for them outside her kennel gate. Understandably with a section 3 DDA case they were not able to take the risk entering kennels with dogs that were to pose a risk to them. She had came from a volatile environment and a complex case. Thankfully she was given a lifeline. Link to her story is at the bottom.

Fast forward to today and this little lady is a beautiful, gentle and happy girly. Everyone at her Staffie Smiles Rescue family love her and she will be ready soon to move on to her retirement home. She is looking for somewhere quiet but with forever humans that will still be fun and give her a happy and fulfilling life, because although this girly is 8 years old and physically she might be aging don’t tell her that! She can still keep up with the young ones no problem, thinking that she mentally has years shaved off her age (bit like myself 😂)! Trying to tell her to slow down and she can’t do spring jumps on those back legs of hers because they don’t work like they used to is pointless because she tells us otherwise!

She loves her treats and food, it’s the fastest sit we’ve ever seen and she still does her high-5 without being asked. She offers the spring jumps and butt bumps too but we’re trying to calm them and save the legs which is a work in progress.

She is an amazing walker on the lead, and she looks ever so pretty while doing so.

She is full of mischief and when things aren’t moving fast enough initially when getting ready to go, she will do a good chimp impression so u can see how clean her teeth are while giving the vocals of “get a move on” 😬

She really is a beautiful soul. Loved by all her Staffie Smiles Rescue family. We want to start putting feelers out for a retirement home for her. Preferably in a quiet home and quiet area. Not a busy home either. And pet free. We will be posting her updates on the staffie smiles rescue page over the next little while so please keep an eye on this.

Scotland only for homes.

Link to case: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=763001938201532&id=100034751996706

Link to last update: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=796354364866289&id=100034751996706

16/03/2024

Thanks to German Shepherd Rescue Scotland for sending me this beautiful and heartwarming update of this stunning boy yesterday! This is what makes everything worth it and makes the down days and emotional days pull urself together and to always keep going! The words on this link below capture everything perfectly of how I seen this boy on his assessment for the courts, the magnificent and truly beautiful soul he was inside and out and he just needed that chance!
It was back in 2021 this boy had a destruction order on him by the courts and I was asked to assess him and take on his case, and without German Shepherd Rescue Scotland giving him his lifeline and seeing the beautiful soul that I seen too, sticking by him and fighting for him alongside, he wouldn’t have had a chance at his new life and he wouldn’t have found his new forever humans too! Cannot thank them enough for everything they have done for him! And it wasn’t an easy journey and it was also a costly one too for them!
First pic is one from assessment 2021 and the second pic is from Carrie Southerton Photoshoot. (Details below) ❤️

The words from the Carrie Southerton Dog Photography shoot are just perfect! Link is here:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=808093421324419&id=100063713057152

And the link to this boys history and his rescue journey is also here:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=548172546351140&id=100034751996706

15/03/2024

Thank you to Carl and the team at East Lothian Council for yesterday bracing the very wet and rubbish weather! But a bigger thank u for really going above and beyond to help the dogs and work with us behind the scenes on things to try make a difference for the dogs and their humans for this legislation!

It’s been positive steps these past few weeks going on behind scenes we are all working on and it’s really important to have the right people on board who really care about the dogs, their welfare, and who want to make sure common sense and a proper understanding all round is happening for everyone involved.

Please follow Hopes journey over at Staffie Smiles Rescue as well as all her other doggo friends at the page. Although Hope will be exempted under the rescue, lots of her other bullbreed friends still need their humans to call their own. 💙

01/03/2024

Productive and busy day yesterday ended by slobbers and spending the best time with these little faces - the Staffie Smiles Rescue crew 🥰 Dobby and Pumpkin scored the late shift in the rain/hail (King is thankfull he missed out on that) and Dobby also wearing his slobbers but it can’t be helped, we not always camera ready over here when we having too much fun! 😌

Pumpkin is giving me the “move ur butt woman, I wanted to go to the paddock for the toys” look as we were doing some lead work around the field, something she didn’t sign up for and no one told her about!! 😂

I’ve added pics of Hopes girly day for a potter around with us ladies and to grab a coffee the other week before the ban came in as my little vids didn’t save of her yesterday. 🥰

01/03/2024

Love this girly, despite not having done any training for a while and we weren’t doing any either yesterday, she remembers it all when we are together. She is so switched on and that lovely gentle nature is a dream to work with. We were having relaxing time yesterday in the paddock before our walk in the field but she wanted to be by the leg so we were seeing if “heel” was still remembered. Such a clever little girl! And “shnuggles” are always allowed for our Staffie Smiles Rescue Olivia 🥰❤️

16/01/2024

Please share for this beautiful girl. She is truly stunning on the inside and out. So affectionate. 🥰 She will need to match her new family very well, and they will need to be commited, patient, understanding and help her through her adolescent journey with confidence. Please read her post and contact Staffie Smiles Rescue if fully commited and serious about sharing Hope's journey for life. 🥰

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=669869748695472&id=100070173595069

16/01/2024

This beautiufl girl is Olivia. 🥰

She was found dumped with beautiful girly Willow a few months back. (Most will have seen all over social media). Both have beautiful gentle souls and lovely characters, and have done amazing pushing through their fears and building confidence, despite it being evident they have not only suffered the trauma of being dumped and tied up at the side of a road, moved around and facing euthanasia until a rescue could step in, but have also suffered a heavy hand in life and haven't had much exposure to the world or had much kindness from us humans.

No matter all that has been endured in her short life, this beautiful soul of a lady has been pushing through everything she faces and building her confidence in the world. It is lovely to see her now play with toys (something that was totally alien to her when she first arrived at Staffie Smiles Rescue ). Her brain has had time to settle down, she has had time to decompress and she has been having fun learning loose lead and heel, listens well, and she loves learning, taking it all in her stride!

She loves nothing more than having affection and being told how good she is doing. She needs reassurance in everything she does, and she has a full team of cheerleaders behind her with her rescue family at Staffie Smiles. They all adore her.

She has an old eye injury that will be fully checked, she doesn't have much sight on this side so us humans have to be aware of this when passing food from the hand to her and approaching from her special eye side (we not calling it a bad one). She loves her food, is very food motivated which is great for training, and takes her treats ever so gently, just gotta watch the mushy cheeks and slobbers of hers when trying to take from her special eye side.

This girly doesn't have a bad bone in her body. She is adorable and needs to find her special humans to give her a home of her own. She needs pet free. And she needs someone who will help continue to build her confidence and be patient with her. Who will provide the comfort and be her cheerleader when she gets things right too, because she needs them snuggles. 🥰

Please head over to the Staffie Smiles Rescue page for more info on her. Or click the link below for her website page and to pop in an application for foster or adoption.
https://www.staffiesmilesrescues.com/profile---olivia.html